A close call for Creech
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• Using vehicles without excise licences and test certificates has led to the suspension of one of the three vehicles operated by Creech Concrete, of Creech St Michael, Taunton for three months.
Western Traffic Commissioner Air Vice Marshal Ronald Ashford said the use of untested vehicles was a "most heinous offence".
Ashford told a Taunton disciplinary inquiry that although he accepted the company had been heavily penalised for the VED offences, the fines of £.80 imposed for the test certificate offences were "almost derisory".
For the company, Alan Walton said the offences occurred in 1994 when it was struggling financially and managing director Michael Criddle had health problems. The accounts for 1994 showed a significant loss. However, the 1995 accounts showed that the situation had been turned round.
Air Vice Marshal Ashford said that when a Creech vehicle was stopped, it was not taxed or tested and it was displaying another vehicle's tax and 0-licence discs.
Criddle said the other vehicle had broken down and he told his
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son to change the licence over. His son had thought he could just transfer the licence without notifying the Traffic Area, and he had also transferred the tax disc.
Asked about a further VED offence and two other instances of the use of untested vehicles, Criddle said that if they had let the customer down they would have lost the contract. He had thought that a slight delay in having the vehicles tested would not matter.
Air Vice Marshal Ashford pointed out that vehicles had been run without being tested from the beginning of July until the end of October.
Criddle said that it had been a matter of sur vival. If the company had lost the contract they might as well have packed up.
After he had said the vehicles were mechanically as near perfect as they could be, Air Vice Marshal
Ashford commented that when one of the vehicles was stopped, and
these matters came to light, it was also given a delayed prohibition.
Walton said that the regulations had been infringed in desperate times. However, the company had clearly put its house in order since and had now obtained BSI accreditation.
Air Vice Marshal Ashford said it seemed to him that Criddle had been playing fast and loose with the law. There had been significant and serious failings and Criddle had shown a total disregard for his responsibilities as an operator. He had come very close to revoking the licence altogether.